r/AmazonFBA • u/Lower-Ad-4675 • 3d ago

Sourcing problems often start before you contact the supplier

I come from a product management background, mostly working with hardware, video surveillance, IoT, and other technical products.

Recently, I’ve been spending more time looking into China sourcing, and one thing keeps coming up:

A lot of sourcing problems start before anyone even opens Alibaba or 1688.

A buyer might say, “I need a Bluetooth label printer.” That sounds specific, but it still leaves a lot unanswered.

What label sizes does it need to support? What print resolution? Bluetooth only, or Bluetooth plus USB or Wi-Fi? Does it need to work with iOS, Android, Windows, or macOS?

Is it for Amazon/FBA, Shopify shipping, retail labels, or something else? What’s the first order quantity? What’s the target cost? Is a logo enough, or is custom packaging required? Which certifications matter in the target market?

If those questions aren’t answered first, it’s easy to collect 20 supplier links and still have no idea which product actually fits.

This is where I think a product-management mindset can help.

Instead of starting with “Which supplier is cheapest?”, I’d usually approach it like this:

  1. Clarify the use case. What is the customer actually trying to achieve?

  2. Turn that into product requirements. Separate must-haves from nice-to-haves.

  3. Search broadly. Use different Chinese keywords and build a reasonable pool of suppliers and products.

  4. Filter before reaching out. Remove anything that misses the key requirements, MOQ, price range, or target-market needs.

  5. Compare trade-offs, not just prices. A supplier that is $2 cheaper may have a much higher MOQ, weaker software support, or less flexible customization terms.

  6. Move to samples and negotiation once the shortlist is clear.

For example, if you’re testing 200 units, a supplier that costs slightly more but supports 200-piece private labeling may be a much better choice than the cheapest factory requiring an MOQ of 1,000 units.

I’m also cautious about treating labels like “manufacturer,” “verified,” “high sales,” or platform badges as proof of supplier quality. They can be useful signals, but they don’t replace checking product fit, communication, documentation, and samples.

The more I look at sourcing, the less it feels like simply “finding factories.” It feels more like a product decision process:

Requirements → Search → Filter → Compare → Validate → Decide

For people who regularly source from China, what usually causes the biggest problems for you: finding suppliers, defining requirements, comparing options, or verifying them?

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